Examining Chaffer’s 24 points Differentiating Israel and the Church — Part 5.

12.- THE FATHER: ISRAEL- by peculiar relationship God was father to a nation; CHURCH- we are related individually to God the Father.

Deuteronomy 29:10-15, 18-21 “You stand today, all of you, before the Lord your God: your chiefs, your tribes, your elders and your officers, even all the men of Israel, your little ones, your wives, and the alien (gentile) who is within your camps, from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water, that you may enter into the covenant with the Lord your God, and into His oath which the Lord your God is making with you today, in order that He may establish you today as His people and that He may be your God, just as He spoke to you and as He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. “Now not with you alone am I making this covenant and this oath, but both with those who stand here with us today in the presence of the Lord our God and with those who are not with us here today so that there will not be among you a man** or woman**, or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of those nations; that there will not be among you a root bearing poisonous fruit and wormwood.

This call makes clear God’s call of every individual as his or her God. Not as a Father but as God. And what will happen if the individual falls?

It shall be when he** hears the words of this curse, that he** will boast, saying, ‘I**have peace though I** walk in the stubbornness of my** heart in order to destroy the watered land with the dry.’ The Lord shall never be willing to forgive him**, but rather the anger of the Lord and His jealousy will burn against that man**, and every curse which is written in this book will rest on him**, and the Lord will blot out his** name from under heaven. Then the Lord will single him** out for adversity from all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant which are written in this book of the law.

Each time you see this** symbol in the above verses it is the singling out of one individual with whom God has broken His covenant and blotted out his name. It is quite evident that Israel’s relationship to The Godhead was first individual, and then as a corporate body. It is no different today. Just as individuals go so will go body (the Nation). Chafer is wrong on this as on his other points.

Psalm 68:4-5 Sing to God, sing praises to His name; Lift up a song for Him who rides through the deserts, Whose name is the Lord, and exult before Him. A father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows, Is God in His holy habitation.

Psalm 89:20, 24, 26 “I have found David My servant;With My holy oil I have anointed him, “My faithfulness and My lovingkindness will be with him, And in My name his horn will be exalted. “He will cry to Me, ‘You are my Father, My God, and the rock of my salvation.’

God deals with individuals in Israel as a Father and always has. Chafer again is wrong. In fact I can find nowhere in the Old Testament that God is related as Father to the Nation itself. He is the God of the nation, and Father to the individual just as He is to you and I.

Realizing that at this point in time Christ could be anything to the Nation Israel, they have various understandings of what or who Their messiah could be. The Nation itself is not religious during this span of history, individuals are. But based on the Romans verses from what we have already viewed elsewhere, they will one day be one with us as believers in Christ. They will accept Jesus as their savior, in Isa. 54, as we have seen scripture here lends support for a belief that they will one future day be married again to the one who’s death in Isa. Chapter 53 made them a widow and barren. This seems to be the state that they will be in corporately, but not as individuals. For until they call upon Christ corporately as they do today as individuals; they will not fulfill their destiny. It is only then that He will return to save them and then they are remarried as His bride along with us to Him.

14. THE HOLY SPIRIT- ISRAEL came upon some temporarily; CHURCH- Indwells all.

To these points I would just ask, why David prayed- take not thy Holy Spirit from me?

John 3:9-10 Nicodemus said to Him (Jesus), “How can these things be?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? Considering this question by Jesus and the teaching about being born again, one must ask why did Jesus say this to Nicodemus? It is as if Jesus was saying you a teacher of Israel should know that men and women of the remnant of Israel are born of the Spirit, and must be in order to enter the kingdom.

As for what we call the Church corporately we could only wish that the Holy Spirit would be indwelling all.

John 3:5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

THIS WOULD IMPLY IF CHAFER IS CORRECT THAT: the Old Testament saint to include even David will never enter into the kingdom because according to Him they were never born of the spirit. So, Who are we to believe? Christ Jesus or Chafer?

Evidence of the Holy Spirits indwelling in the OT

Dan. 4:8; 18; 5:11. Implies that the Spirit of God is in Daniel.

Ez 18:31?

Ez 3:24

Deut 34:9

Numbers 27:18 So the Lord said to Moses, “Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him;

Genesis 41:38 Then Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find a man like this, in whom is a divine spirit?”

Exodus 31:3 I have filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all kinds of craftsmanship,

New test verifies O.T. Indwelling.

1 Peter 1:10-11 As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.

Luke 1:15 speaking of the birth of John the Baptist. Remember this is still OT times

Luke 1:15 For he will be great in the sight of the Lord; and he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother’s womb.

I contend based on scripture that the remnant of Israel were born of the spirit and will be present in the kingdom just as we will. This then helps I hope with the confusion that Chafer’s view introduces, which actually attempts to divide the corporate remnant in Christ. John 3:5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.